Hundreds of children are being rescued through child pornography investigations that may not have been rescued in any other way. Some success stories:

Case: Wayne Bleyle, 2006, San Diego, California
San Diego Internet Crimes Against Children task force
Number of child victims: Hundreds or thousands of hospital patients

Wayne Bleyle was a respiratory therapist in a severely-disabled children's ward of Children's Hospital in San Diego. In early 2006, Detective Chris Armstrong, an investigator in San Diego's ICAC unit, became aware of a prolific trader in child pornography in the San Diego region, and followed the digital trail to Bleyle. When asked, Bleyle admitted that he had molested 2-3 comatose and brain-damaged children, those too disabled to speak, per week for the previous 10 years. He was sentenced in 2007 to 45 years and 8 months in prison.

Case: "Kids, the Light of Our Lives", 2005-6, Global
British, American, Canadian, and Australian investigators
Number of child victims: 31 children rescued

A chat room which broadcast live, streaming video of children being horrifically sexually abused, some as young as three months old, was broken up and 31 children rescued. Investigators, working together internationally, infiltrated the chat room and successfully arrested the ringleader. As he was arrested, investigators took over his identity and gathered evidence for 10 days while running the room before shutting it down. One week later, the room was up and running with another ringleader. Again, investigators were able to infiltrate and arrest the leader, assuming his identity and gathering additional evidence. Investigations based on the evidence obtained were still ongoing globally as of June, 2007.